David marches into world semis
GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, Dec 20, 2012 (AFP) - Sixtimes champion Nicol David's slight hiccup en route to the World Open semi-finals only served to highlight how extraordinary has been her dominance of the women's tour. The superbly consistent Malaysian's dropped game during a 11-3, 11-7, 911, 11-3 victory over Ireland's Madeline Perry on Wednesday was only the second that she has allowed to get away from her in four years and 18 matches at this venue.
Hurtling into the fourth game, she ramped up her intensity, stemmed a trickle of errors on the backhand side, and closed out the match with a whirl.
“I know that Madeline can come back from two-love down and I had to do something about it,” she said. “I didn't want that to happen. So I had to adjust my shots in the fourth and I'm pleased with that.”Perry may take comfort in having suddenly made a match of it, engineering a brief but passionate recovery during which she once hurled her racket away in frustration, a misdemeanour bringing mild admonishment from the referee. To reach the final David now has to win a repeat of last year's final in Rotterdam. That is because Jenny Duncalf upset the seedings with her best win of the year, by 7-11,17-19, 11-5, 11-4, 11-9 against her English compatriot Alison Waters. Duncalf was behind for almost all the match, failing with three game balls in a monster second game and somehow taking strength from the setback.